


Falling Through The Ropes

by writetherest



Category: Castle
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-12
Updated: 2013-08-12
Packaged: 2017-12-23 06:34:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/923136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writetherest/pseuds/writetherest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>But she knows the truth. The bullet was never meant for her.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling Through The Ropes

_If a boxer is knocked out of the ring through the ropes, he or she is given a 20 count to get back into the ring on their feet. They can't be assisted or it will be considered a knockout._

**

He sees the glint moments before she does. Her name tears from his lips, even as she shakes her head.

"KATE!"

_No._

The gunshot echoes and people scatter, hitting the ground. He attempts to push her out of the way, but the bullet hits its mark and the world tilts on its axis.

"Kate."

_No._ It's a whisper as the blood covers her hands.

"Kate."

"Stay with me. Stay with me."

"Kate."

_No._

_Castle._

**

She can't look at anyone in the waiting room. Can't see the way Alexis and Martha are hunched over, clinging to each other as their whole world falls around them. _And you can't charm your way out of a bullet._ Can't see Ryan and Esposito finally allow their professional masks to slip. _This is my partner, Ryan. And this is my other partner, Castle._ Can't see the look of worry and pity she knows is on Lanie's face, even as she holds on to Esposito. _Honey, just because you can't see what's going on doesn't mean everyone else doesn't see what's going on._ Can't see the haunted look in her father's eyes, as he sits and watches her without really seeing. _I had nightmares where it swallowed you whole._

None of them see. None of them realize what has happened. Because they all think that that bullet was meant for her, that Castle just jumped in front of her, took it for her.

But she knows the truth. The bullet was never meant for her.

It was always meant for Castle.

**

The surgery takes over six hours, and by the time Josh comes out, covered in blood, Kate feels like she's going insane. It was supposed to be her on that table, her with the bullet lodged in her chest, and Castle out here, being the strong one, keeping everyone together like he's always kept her together. _Do you know why I chose you as my inspiration for Nikki Heat? Because you're tall._

Josh asks for Castle's family and everyone in the room moves forward except for her father. _No one outside this immediate family ever needs to know about this._ She takes one step before she stops herself. She is not his family and this is all her fault.

She hears the words, disjointed as they are to her ears, and allows it to finally register in her brain that he's still alive. _Plucky sidekick always gets killed._ He's her partner ( _Partner, then._ ) and partners aren't supposed to die, but a lot of things have been happening lately that aren't supposed to happen.

Everyone visibly relaxes at this pronouncement and soon Josh is leading Martha and Alexis to Castle's room. Ryan walks Jenny to her car, sending her home with a kiss and a promise that he'll be there as soon as he sees Castle for himself. Esposito and Lanie go for a coffee run, promising to be back quickly. She's left with only her father and she doesn't know what to say to him.

"Katie." He reaches out to her, but she can't do this, not today.

"You should go home, Dad. Everything's fine here, so…"

"No, it's not." Jim sighs and runs a hand over his face. "I asked him to stop you. I told him he was the only one who could. And now he's been shot…"

She can't handle this, can't hear this, so she shakes her head. "Go home, Daddy. Please."

He hugs her tight, even as she fights against the comfort, and kisses her forehead before he leaves. "I love you, Katie."

And when she's finally alone, she allows herself to cry.

**

Josh comes back later, and she finds that she can't even look at him because all she can see is Castle's blood on him. It's a stain on Josh and on her hands and on everything in her life, she realizes. Castle's blood has been spilled and it will stain her life forever.

"He's asking for you. Has been since he woke up." He doesn’t say that it seems like Castle always asks for her first, before even his own safety, but she hears the words anyway.

She looks at her bloodstained hands and his bloodstained scrubs and forces the words out of her mouth. "I can't do this, Josh."

"I'm going back to Africa tomorrow, Kate." He hopes the words are registering. "I thought I could be what you need, but I can't. I think he's the only one who can."

"Josh." She doesn't even feel anything at his words. He's leaving, breaking up with her, and all she can see is Castle's blood, everywhere.

"He's asking for you. You should go to him this time." He kisses her forehead, and then he's gone, leaving her alone again.

**

Ryan, Esposito, and Lanie all go in to see him while she sits in the waiting room, unmoving. They each try, in their own way, to get her to go see him, but she can't. She can't see him in that bed and she can't see the accusations in the eyes of Alexis and Martha. This is her fault and she can't face it.

She can stare at the pictures of her mother, stabbed to death in an alley. She can look at crime scene photos for hours, can pour over files and reports. She can watch as Roy's casket is lowered into the ground and watch as her mother's murderer bleeds out in front of her. She can even watch the light go out in Royce's eyes and her father drink himself into oblivion every day for years. But she can't face him, alive but no longer whole, in a hospital bed.

_I know you crawled inside your mother's murder and didn't come out._

His words echo in her ears. He was wrong about one thing. She had come out. Slowly, inch by inch, with him by her side, pulling her every step of the way, she had come out. But this? Him being shot? That she will never come out of.

The sniper knew what he was doing. Killing her wouldn't have stopped anything. Castle, Ryan, and Esposito would not have stopped. Castle would never have stopped. He would never have let it rest, would never have let it go unsolved. More bodies would've piled up and people would've started to get suspicious.

But shooting Castle, that was different. Dick Coonan had realized it last year, grabbing Castle as his ticket out the door. There was very little Kate had left to lose in her life. But Castle was a lot to lose. He was everything to lose. And as her father and the sniper had known, he was the only thing that could make her back down.

**

It's after midnight, well after visiting hours are over, when Kate finally slips into his room. Alexis and Martha are asleep on a small couch and recliner that are in the private room Castle has managed to procure. Her plan is to see that he's breathing and slip out again before anyone knows she's been there.

But as always, Castle throws a wrench in that plan. Because his eyes open and lock on hers.

"Kate." It's that same whisper as when he was bleeding out beneath her hands, and she nearly runs from the room. She forces herself to stay, though, because she's got to do something before she can leave.

She tiptoes to his side, careful not to wake the sleeping redheads and allows her fingers to intertwine with his. "Hi."

"Hi."

He looks pale and exhausted and far closer to death than she'd ever want to see.

"Are you okay?"

She doesn't know whether to laugh or cry because he's the one that's been shot and yet he's asking if she's okay. "I'm fine."

He shakes his head, as if to let her know that he doesn't believe her. "The sniper…"

"Hit his mark, Castle." She's still whispering, but she tries to impart the seriousness of the situation to him.

"Kate?"

She finally speaks the truth that she's known from that first god awful moment when he'd yelled her name. "They weren't aiming for me, they were aiming for you."

His brow furrows as if he's trying to figure this out, trying to understand why someone would write the story this way.

"They knew it was the only way to stop it. And they were right." She tightens her hold on his hand. "I'm done, Castle."

"No." It's the first word that either of them have spoken in a normal tone, and it seems just as loud as the gunshot to Kate.

"Rick."

"No." He says it again. "You can't stop now."

"You're the one who told me to walk away. And you were right, Castle. I've got to stop this now, before someone else ends up dead."

"They won't stop. They won't stop until you're dead. So we've got to figure this out and stop them first."

"They won't stop until you're dead." She whispers and hates that tears are gathering in her eyes. "And I won't let that happen."

"Kate."

"They know now. They know that you matter to me. And they'll do anything to hurt me. They'll keep coming after you until they succeed. And who knows what could happen until they do, who could be hurt. I can't let it happen. I can't let them hurt you and I can't let them hurt them." She nods in the direction of Alexis and Martha.

"I'll protect them. And I'll protect you. But if you're making your stand, then I'm there with you."

"Rick."

"They killed Roy. And your mother. I won't let them take anything else from you, Kate."

She intends to argue, but the door opens and a nurse walks in. She looks disapprovingly at Kate but Rick holds up his hand. "It's okay. She's family."

Both women look ready to argue, but defer to the man in the bed. "You need to get some sleep, Mr. Castle." The nurse insists after she's checked his vitals.

Kate moves to follow her, but Castle won't let go of her hand. "They tried to knock me out, to knock you out, to knock us out. Don't let them, Kate. Let's get back up and show them what we're made of."

She swallows hard and closes her eyes. "Get some sleep, Castle."

"Kate." He argues, softly.

"Take the twenty count and get back up," she whispers.

"Only if you do, too."

There's still so much left unsaid between them, so much that has changed in just a few hours, but for now, this is enough. Kate pulls up a hard plastic chair and lays her head on his bed, allowing her eyes to close.

Together they'll take the twenty count and get back up.  



End file.
